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A Stanford Liberal Arts tradition

The Thinking Matters program builds on a nearly 90-year tradition of undergraduate liberal education at Stanford, which began in 1919 with the pioneering “Problems of Citizenship” course. Thinking Matters courses are meant to help freshman students develop a sense for what constitutes a genuine question or problem and how to address it in a creative and disciplined manner. Through an emphasis on critical analysis, close reading, analytic writing, and effective communication, a liberal education enables students to make connections across many fields of study that will inform their future intellectual work and life after Stanford.